Beards and Jackets

I am not a comic book fan, let me get that out of the way first. This is not to say that I do not enjoy comic books or that I do not have respect for the art form. I do. I’ve just never been able to get into them. I’ve never been able to get myself to pay for them issue to issue, to stay constant with them and to invest my time and money into them. Although, what I can say is that I have always been fascinated by their mythology.

I enjoy the characters, the story lines and most of all their struggles. I certainly feel that while they are stories about humans with superpowers (and even those without) they are more or less stories about people not unlike you or I. They deal with problems, both emotional and physical, that test them to their very limits everyday.

Of course, superheroes are fictional. However, the question is always asked: what if they were real? What if superheroes really existed in the real world?

Now, I’ve never read the original Watchmen graphic novel. Although, I’ve known some that have. After seeing this film though, I’m kind of glad that I had not read the graphic novel before hand. I seriously felt that going into the film with no expectation and nothing to compare the movie to was a much better experience than it would have been had I something else to remember it by. With that said, let me just say that I really enjoyed the movie.

Although, that isn’t to say that there weren’t some things that I disagreed with. The one thing that bothered me the most about the movie was the ending. Well, not so much the ending but the climax of the film. You know, that part in any action/superhero film wherein the heroes finally come face-to-face with the villain for the epic showdown. I won’t spoil it for those that have not seen the film, but I can say that up until that point there was nothing wrong with the film in my mind. Especially one scene that was horribly edited.

Now, of course, as I’ve mentioned before I have not read the original graphic novel so I don’t know the differences between them but from what I’ve heard they are kind of different. Does this mean that I will be procuring the graphic novel at some point? Perhaps. Maybe then and only then will I be able to do a complete review of the film, but until then this is what you get. So, back to the pros: what did I enjoy?

I enjoyed the action (top notch), there was plenty of blood and gore (surprised at that one) and quite the saucy sex scene (that was quite unexpected, as well) that kept things moving along nicely. I especially loved the opening title sequence which showed the history of this alternate world of superheros and how they influenced key-moments in history. I am quite the sucker for alternate history induced media. As well as things being set in the 1980s, which to me was the greatest decade of all time (far as I’ve been alive, that is), although some of the music cues seemed out of place.

Besides that though, I did enjoy it and would reccomend it. Chances are I will end up buying the graphic novel and giving that a go, and when I do, chances are I just may review it as well. Who knows, it might even change my opinion on the movie, too.

(RATING: 7 Beards out of 10 Jackets)

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